I haven't written here for quite a while, but I think that I made it up for in the length of this article. If you are interested enough, you can follow the link to my website for a PDF copy. I have been having a debate with my friend Jack (shout out!) about the proper way to view Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning. Both young men came into contact with secrets that they felt obligated, for whatever reason, to reveal. Whether you consider them heroes, traitors or something in the mid...
Today, at the JCS of Ann Arbor, I was privileged to take part in a reenactment of the Ellis Island experience, as follows: For millions of immigrant families, Ellis Island represented the last hurdle that needed to be overcome on the long journey to America. Ellis Island was a place of hope for, after long and often difficult struggles, the New World was in sight; but at the same time, it was a place of fear and desperation, because individuals or families could be refused admittance and sent b...
The end of the year is always a time of reflection for me, of looking back over the past and thinking about the reasons to be grateful. One of the big things for me, and for my family, this past year was getting to meet Cory Doctorow in person. I have been a fan of his for a number of years, ever since someone recommended that I read his novel " Little Brother." I really wish I could remember who that was. After the first book, A Place So Foreign and Eight More, Overclocked: Stories of...
I recently bought a new and faster Micro SD card for my Epic 4G. I tried to copy the files on my old Micro SD card over through my Windows computer; however Windows Explorer failed. I have a number of applications installed on my SD and Windows was just not happy with .gz format files, etc. A number of back up and cloning utilities were suggested at various forums; the one that I found be the best, in terms of small footprint and ease of use, is the HDD Raw Copy tool from HDD Guru. It i...
If you are like me and people ask you to fix their computers, you probably carry a set of applications on a USB drive, your PC toolkit. SARDU, developed by Davide Costa, is a meta-tool, an application that lets you create and customize a bootable USB or CD/DVD toolkit. Get it? It is a tool for making a really cool toolkit. You download and unzip SARDU to your computer. Using a very simple interface, you can add components, as you wish, to create a really powerful and customized bootable USB d...
My daughter, Lauren Kuperman, turns 17 this month. She is a senior at Community High in Ann Arbor, applying to colleges and is ready to start taking on both the rights and responsibilities of adulthood. With that in mind, Lauren and I went to the Red Cross this morning to donate blood. Her first time, my 49th since coming to Michigan. Going today was her idea. As I have mentioned in the past, Lauren attended Sunday School at the Ann Arbor Jewish Cultural School (JCS.) As part of her education...
When I was more active in the JoeUser, Stardock and Wincustomize Communities, posting on my birthday was an annual (Duh!) ritual. It has been a while, so pardon me if I am rusty. I woke this morning in the manner that passes for normal in my house. I checked the news as I always do. I began with the obituary section. My name wasn't there so I knew that I had to get up. I did receive a wonderful, wonderful present from President Obama and it would be remiss of me if I did not thank him. I ...
Today is my last official day as a full-time Stardock employee; although there will be a transition period of some length where I'll still be around (what I like to refer to as the "Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in" time) but as of Monday I will primarily be a GameStop employee. I joined Stardock more than a decade ago, in February 2001. During my tenure, I was a part of the release of WindowBlinds for XP (that became WindowBlinds 3) at the Microsoft offices outside D...
A little bit late, but I didn't want this to be forgotten. This past Friday, April 15th, 2011, marked the 10th anniversary of the death of Jeffry Ross Hyman, better known as lead singer Joey Ramone of The Ramones. On Sunday, I dedicated my Adult Education lecture at the JCS of Ann Arbor ( http://www.jewishculturalsociety.org/ ) celebrating the contributions of "Jews In Punk Rock" to his memory. The class lecture traced the contributions of Jewish social commentators beginning with the Be...
It has been a while since I have written one of these articles combining two of my favorite topics: Software and Free Things. In the past, they have turned collaborative, with members of the community adding their favorite programs and often teaching me. I hope that this time is no different. I recently played with a couple of Linux distros, starting off with Live CDs (and Live USB installs) and then decided to install Ubuntu on a partition. Ran it quite happily for a while alongside Windows ...
I recently had a debate with a Conservative friend of mine about the ties between News Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, and Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. When I said that the Saudi Prince was one of the largest and most influentilal shareholders in the media conglomerate, my assertion was met with disbelief. So let's establish the facts, quoting from the linked article: Sunday, January 17, 2010 Saudi billionaire eyes new links with News Corp. CAIRO – The Saudi b...
Tomorrow is the 14th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize recipient. He was murdered not by a Palestinian terrorist, not by a member of an Arab terrorist organization, but by Yigal Amir, a right-wing fanatic and Orthodox Jew. Amir opposed Israel's participtaion in the Oslo accords. Along with his brother, Hagai Amir, and their friend Dror Adani, he plotted and carried out an assassination as Rabin left a rally supporting the peace process. May Rabin...
Today is my son Jon's twenty-second birthday and I want to take the opportunity to say how proud I am of him and what he has meant to my life. This past year has been the best year of my life as I have watched him mature into an adult, an adult who I not only love, but who I truly like and even admire. Twenty-two years and some horurs ago I was sitting in the living room of an apartment where we lived in the Bronx. I was watching the Mets game on TV. The Mets were down by one run, had the tyi...
I have recently written an article on Sarah Palin's resignation (see http://kupe.joeuser.com/article/358346/Palin_Resigns_as_Govenor) and as one of the minority of Liberals still writing on JoeUser, I have no doubt that I will catch flack for my opinions. I don't mind the grief that I get for my decidedly Liberal point of view, but it does offend me when it is implied that Liberals are in some way un-American. I love my country and, even during the darkest days of Vietnam and the Bush Presidency...
On the first day of the long 4th of July Holiday weekend, a day no doubt chosen to minimize press scrutiny, Sarah Palin announced that she would serve out her elected term of office, but would instead turn the reins over to the state's Lieutenant Governor, Sean Parnell. She stated in her resignation speech that one of the factors motivating her resignation was the high cost to both the state and to the Palin family of defending her against the 15 ethics complaints that had been brought against h...